Explorations in Economic Anthropology : Key Issues and Critical Reflections

At a time of rising global economic precarity and social inequality, the field of economic anthropology offers solutions through the study of local and contextualized economic practices. This book is made up of an exciting collection of succinct essays authored by leading scholars primarily from the field of economic anthropology, but also featuring contributions from sociology and history. The chapters engage with debates at the cutting edge of research on the topics of Eurasia, the anthropology of postsocialism and the embeddedness of economic practices. Contents 6 Acknowledgements 9 Introduction. Chris Hann and the Anthropological Study of Economic Life • Kirsten W. Endres and Deema Kaneff 10 Part I. Reconsidering (Post)Socialist Spaces 26 1. Civilizations and Economies: Notes on a Neglected Theme • Johann P. Arnason 28 2. From Halecki to Hann: The Historiography of Historical Regions • Stefan Troebst 44 3. Out of the Frying Pan and into the Fire, or Modernization Forever? Economic Strategies in the Transformation of Peasant Societies • Mihály Sárkány 61 4. Something to Be Nostalgic About? Goulash Socialist and Postsocialist Rural Society in Hungary • Nigel Swain 73 5. Man Does Not Live by Bread Alone: The Indivisibility of Economic and Discursive Aspects in Neoliberal and Populist Regimes in Poland • Michał Buchowski 85 6. Making a Reality of Other People’s Fictions: A Smithian Critique of Post-Marxian and Polanyi-ite Accounts of Exploitation • Michael Stewart 98 7. Resilience and Surveillance in Hann’s Eurasia • Steven Sampson 111 Part II. Economic Anthropology in a Changing World 128 8. Hijra, Port and Market: Pre-Ottoman Economies in Southwest Arabia’s Zaydi Realm • Andre Gingrich 130 9. From Social Norms to Legal Norms: Regulating Work in Postneoliberal Political Economies • Ruth Dukes and Wolfgang Streeck 143 10. The Moral Economy of Anthropological Scholarship • Monica Heintz 154 11. Some Thoughts on Embeddedness, Value and the Moral Dimension in the Work of Chris Hann • Frances Pine 166 12. Property, Resources and Gauging Social Change • Deema Kaneff 178 13. Birth, Property and the Male Descendant: Some Evidence from India • Chris Gregory 191 14. What Has Happened to Turkish Tea? Thoughts on a Cash Crop, the Turkish State and Society in This Millennium • Lale Yalçın-Heckmann 203 Part III. Economies of the Sacred and Secular 216 15. Economy Is a Ritual • Stephen Gudeman 218 16. The Rice, the Rice Goddess and the Sickle: An Agricultural ‘Revolution’ among the Bru of Khe Sanh, 1989 • Gábor Vargyas 228 17. The Dharma and the Dime: Money and Buddhist Morality • Christoph Brumann 241 18. Stealing Goddesses: The Political Economy of Kingship in Premodern India • Burkhard Schnepel 252 19. Dalits and the Market: Liberation or Oppression? • David N. Gellner 264 20. Polanyi Goes to Mauritius: Economy and Society in the Postcolony • Thomas Hylland Eriksen 276 Publications by Chris Hann 287 Index 308 "At a time of rising global economic precarity and social inequality, the field of economic anthropology offers solutions through the study of local and contextualized economic practices. This book is made up of an exciting collection of succinct essays authored by leading scholars primarily from the field of economic anthropology, but also featuring contributions from sociology and history. The chapters engage with debates at the cutting edge of research on the topics of Eurasia, the anthropology of postsocialism and the embeddedness of economic practices"-- Provided by publisher